Eight
by I'llxBexUrxEnigma2010
Summary: Because friends don't let other friends lack symmetry- no matter how dark the concept may be. Death the Kid x OC


**So- I'm not too sure if this concept has been done yet on this site- because I only recently got into Soul Eater and became a Kid fangirl- but I figured I'd write this out anyway and see how it goes over. I'm sorry if the idea isn't original- but like I said, I haven't gone through enough fanfics here yet to know if it is or isn't. It's been a while since I've written anything, so do excuse me if my writing is a bit rusty- I shall work on making it better. Enjoy~!**

One scar.

One scar sat in plain sight just beneath her collar bone on the right side of her body, standing out profusely from her otherwise unmarred flesh. It was a simple diagonal line, trailing just a hairs breadth away from the fragile bone beneath the pale skin set atop it.

She'd told them it was from a mission a while back, and nobody could find a legitimate reason to not believe her. They were meister's…and meister's faced the risk of injury with each kishin soul they set off to collect. It was typical to gain battle scars along the journey to creating a death scythe. It was acceptable to retain permanent reminders across one's flesh. So they nodded in understanding and the issue was resolved.

x.x.x.x.x

Two scars.

A new piece of red-raised flesh now claimed its spot along the length of her right thigh. It was a long, angry line of distorted tissue, only jagged towards the very end, as though the blade which caused it swayed in its decision to continue leaving a bloody path in its wake.

She blamed it yet again on her most recent mission, claiming calmly and self-assuredly, that in a moment of recklessness she had allowed herself to become distracted. The new mark upon her body was a reminder to never let herself lose sight of the battle being fought, and they believed her. She refused to have it treated, and instead left it to leave behind a mark in its wake- that was her self-punishment for not adhering to the teachings of the academy in never letting one's guard down.

They admired such a sense of dedication to her teachings. And again, they did not question it. After all, she was a meister, and this was the life they led.

x.x.x.x.x

Three scars.

No one would have noticed the third scar on normal terms- she managed to keep it well hidden beneath the thick row of bracelets that clung tightly to her thin but strong right wrist. Kid had simply been lingering about in the library when she'd absentmindedly taken the bottom two bracelets off and began rubbing her skin when she thought she was alone.

The line was fresh, small flakes of dried blood still visible on her pale flesh as she gazed at the mark distractedly- running a slender finger along the clean-cut contour briefly before allowing a small hiss to escape between her lips at the pain which accompanied the touch.

Kid could be naïve at times, but he certainly was not oblivious. And as he turned quietly to stand outside the library he heard the sound of more metal hitting the wooden table she sat at, his yellow eyes briefly flickering in her direction to take one last fleeting glance before she noticed he was there.

Three was an understatement…far more scars littered her flesh beneath the bracelets she wore religiously.

x.x.x.x.x

Eight scars.

After doing the math from what he had seen, Kid counted a total of eight scars had found permanent residence upon the maester girl's skin- littering it with a melancholic beauty of pain embedded permanently upon her person.

And despite it all- Kid could not find it in him to care so much about the fact she had chosen to destroy the elegance of what was once a flawless array of skin. Instead, he found himself more inclined to obsess over and cringe about the lack of organization in which she had chosen to go about destroying her body.

Still standing outside the library, the young reaper inhaled deeply, a surging breath taken to calm his frazzled nerves and keep his mind calm as he chose to silently re-enter the library and confront the girl.

She still sat at the same table- oblivious to the world around her, as she stared blankly at the design of lines she carved into her own body. By the time he had reached her table and taken a seat across from her, pale violet eyes glanced briefly into Kid's own yellow orbs, as a wryly smirk settled itself upon her face.

"I figured you would be the first one to lecture me on what it is I'm doing, Kid," she remarked evenly, no indicative tone to her voice as she returned her gaze back to her wrist, and tilted her head to the side as though marveling at her own creation.

Kid sat with rigid posture, hands folded neatly beneath his chin, and elbows resting on the table as golden eyes observed her silently, waiting for her to undoubtedly continue what she was saying.

"Are you angry at me, Kid? Do you think I'm pathetic for sinking to such a low? I didn't mean to you know…but the madness just makes me react in such peculiar ways," she almost whispered to him, though doing so was unnecessary given the emptiness of the room.

Kid knew she'd finished saying all that she intended to say upon the matter for the time being, and trying to maintain an air of indifference he spoke, his voice calculative but not entirely condescending.

"I can't say it's within my right to tell you what you can and can't do with your own body. It's not as though it is my temple to tamper with to my hearts' content- it is your life, your flesh…your blood, which is being toyed with- not my own. So really, I shouldn't have any reason to care or scold you for doing what you see fit with your own body," he said, hands now lowered to the table and expression gradually changing to one of anger with each word coming from his lips.

"However," he went to continue, hand suddenly jutting out and latching onto her scar riddled wrist- a small whimper escaping her pursed mouth as she held back the urge to pull away from him despite the fact he was putting pressure on the newest lines she'd made- effectively irritating the already painful area.

"I won't allow you to continue on like this," he resumed saying, pulling her right arm as close to his side of the table as he could, before dropping it none too gently and reaching for her left hand. He abruptly tore off the bracelets on the opposite wrist, finding no scars littered the area, as he began to hiss angrily at her "How dare you? If you are going to defile your body in such a way, then at the very least you should do so in a symmetrical manner. Look at you!"

He stood up now, releasing her left hand yet again, as he stalked around the table and turned her chair to face his form which towered menacingly over her, effectively pinning her against the wall the table sat against.

"Look at yourself damn it! You've chosen to let whatever strength you had waver, and in doing so have ruined only half your body. Why not go all the way, fool? If it is attention you desperately seek, or release you yearn for more than anything, don't do it half ass!" he shouted, swiping a hand beneath her chin to push her long hair out of his way as he placed a finger against the scar beneath her collarbone.

He could hear how ragged her breathing had become, but her bangs hid her eyes from view as she quivered where she sat, pinned between Kid and the wall whilst he continued his rant.

"Should I do it myself? Would you like me to destroy this other half of you! Shall we re-establish the symmetry you've managed to lose over time? You call yourself a meister? No meister is this asymmetrical! Get a grip on whatever is going through that head of yours and how people around you feel, before you decide to act so foolishly," he spoke harshly, dragging his fingertips across her flesh to her left collar bone and digging his nail in deeply- leaving the fading resemblance of a line, but not venturing deep enough to actually draw blood.

"I will give you back your symmetry myself, if you don't get your act together," he whispered, staring down at her shadowed eyes for only a moment longer, before pulling away from her entirely and turning around.

Not bothering to look behind him, Kid walked out of the library, his steps silent as ever, leaving the girl to sit there soundlessly crying, as she tried to pull herself together before she too left the room.

x.x.x.x.x

A week passed and no one had seen or heard from her.

Kid managed to maintain a cool façade to the matter, but inside he worried, as much as he wished he wouldn't.

She was still someone he came to call a friend at his father's academy, and the fact that she had an apparent self-mutilation problem going on, coupled with her sudden unexplained absences, left him teetering on the edge of concern and anger.

However, for the first time since he'd last seen her, she finally walked into class just as the late bell was about to ring, earning several surprised looks from fellow classmates at her sudden appearance.

Walking over to the professor, she muttered a quick apology for her lack of attendance, before climbing the rows of stairs and taking her seat directly in front of Kid who had visibly loosened in his tense posture.

As the lesson continued on, he stared blankly at the man instructing them on studies he had already mastered at home, when a glimpse the girl's left wrist caught his attention as she removed her jacket and placed in on the back of her seat.

A fresh row of six lines decorated the once untainted skin, practically mocking Kid where he sat with their violent red hue. They were protruding unpleasantly from her once smooth flesh, taunting him with their sudden arrival upon her body. And perhaps more shocking than that was the fact that she did nothing to hide them on either of her wrists- none of her typical bracelets being worn to conceal them from the prying eyes of her fellow students.

Clenching his hands into tight fists, Kid bit his tongue to refrain from making a scene- knowing he would only cause other's to look at her and the damage she'd inflicted on herself with unfairly judgmental eyes.

Patty and Liz both turned to look at him at sensing the sudden fluctuation in his soul wavelength, but after shaking his head to dismiss their concern, resumed what they were doing, not noticing Kid's eyes practically burning holes into the back of the girl's head.

By the time class ended his tongue stung from how harshly he'd been biting into it, and his fingers were cramped from their clenched position, but he remained seated as the girl made no move to leave despite the fact their instructor and classmates were making their way out. She merely sat there quietly, looking over her notes and making corrections on them as the room emptied, leaving only herself and Kid in the room once he'd asked Patty and Liz to give them some time alone. They'd tease the hell out of him for it later, but it didn't matter right then.

Walking over to stand beside her, Death's son wasted no time in grabbing her arm and turning her body to face his once again, like he'd done in the library several days prior, and was unsurprised to see she'd matched the marks from her thigh and collarbone to the left side of her body as well.

"Do you think you're being funny by doing this?" he asked her, frustration evident in his voice as his eyes narrowed in anger.

Shaking her head, the violet eyed meister sighed, a frown appearing on her face as she glanced at the ground while she spoke.

"It was never a matter of being funny to begin with Kid. You know I wouldn't go intentionally out of my way to upset you- but I suppose what you said must have stuck with me. You told me my scars were asymmetrical- and coming from you that's the equivalent of being told 'You're ugly'," she spoke softly, as though raising her voice any higher would break whatever courage she'd mustered up to be able to tell him the truth.

"But the last person I want to hate me for nothing more than a lack of symmetry on my end is you- you've been a good friend to me, and I didn't want to face the risk of losing that- so I did what I had to do. I made my scars align perfectly," she continued on to say, standing up as she explained everything to him and raised her lavender gaze to meet his own, his hand still holding onto her arm tightly.

"I can assure you- the madness is not going to have control over my actions anymore- I've gotten things under control now- but you were right. Only half my body was used as my canvas- so I decided I needed to finish my masterpiece and leave it alone after that," she finished explaining, her voice shaky but determined.

Unable to form a response to express exactly what was going through his mind at that moment, Kid scoffed instead, looking away from his friend and down at the chalkboard which still showed their professor's notes.

"You know, what you said to me the other day was a bit harsh all things considered. Just because I am a meister, you assume I'm not allowed to have moments of weakness Kid- or that I'm not allowed to mess around with the fragility of my own life- because it would upset what few friends I've managed to make at this academy. But to tell you the truth, I think that's so selfish of you to say to me. Tell me Kid- were you really so concerned about what I was doing because it would hurt my friends to see what I'd done, or because it hurt you to see what I had destroyed?"

Kid's demeanor changed abruptly, a shout escaping between his lips before he could calmly formulate a response like he would normally opt to do.

"SHUT UP!" he screamed, eyes blazing and mouth set into an apparent snarl as he slammed his hand into the divider separating the row she sat in from his, before using both hands to latch firmly onto her upper arms as he none-to-gently shook her.

"Why the hell do you have to make everything so damn complicated! Why did you have to go and treat your body like a damn experiment like that godforsaken Professor Stein? This isn't a game Kiboko! So what if I was the one who was more worried about you then the others! That doesn't matter. What matters is that you're using madness as an excuse for an apparent problem you have, and you're not letting anyone close enough to help you. Why won't you let somebody help you? Why couldn't you just come to ME?" he continued to rant, panting lightly as he finished his tirade and a worn-out expression settled across his face, his ghostly flesh even paler than normal.

Raising her hands to settle over his own which held strongly onto her arms, Kiboko smiled gently, fingers curling around his palms softly.

"But Kid, I did come to you…I knew you were in the library that day, and that's why I let you see what was going on. You've known the whole time something was up, don't lie. You always were more observant than you like to let others believe you are, but you can't fool me. You were the only one I would let see me like this- aside from today that is. But even when I took off my coat, you were the only one who noticed, and that is why I will always come to you before any other," she explained quietly.

Head hanging in defeat, and also embarrassment as a blush had managed to spread itself across the bride of his nose and into his cheeks, Kid didn't respond immediately, but instead, squeezed her arms he still head slightly before letting go of them completely, only to have her smaller hands immediately grab hold of his own before he could lower them back to his sides. Looking up, amber eyes met lilac, as Lord Death's son sighed tiredly, before speaking once more.

"Is it really over…are you truly done playing these kinds of games with your life, Kiboko?" he asked almost exasperatedly.

Nodding her head confidently, the girl's smile grew, eyes twinkling with a sort of inner strength, as she slowly closed the distance between herself and Kid, releasing his hands in favor of wrapping her arms around his slim waist to cling onto him, if only for a short while.

Shocked by the sudden embrace she held him in, Kid's mind took a moment to register what was going on, before he slowly, cautiously, moved his arms to wrap loosely around the small of her back, his head gently coming to rest atop her own as they stood there in a pleasant silence. He could feel the steady repetition of her breath moving in and out from between her lips against the juncture between his neck and shoulder, sending sudden chills down his spine, but he did nothing to avoid it. Instead, he reveled in the abrupt feeling of completion which consumed him as he had her within his grasp there- no prying eyes to interrupt what was meant to be a private moment shared only between them, and no outside sources to distract him from the calm which washed over him.

After a few minutes he chose to raise his head, removing one hand from her back as he twisted it to carefully latch onto one of the arms she clung to his own body with, bringing it between their bodies as he examined the fresh row of scars she permanently etched into her flesh.

Although he couldn't help but feel saddened at seeing what was once such magnificently flawless skin marred by unnecessary incisions, the young reaper would not deny the fact that she'd done a beautiful job of maintaining symmetry in retrospect to the other half of her body.

Eight scars.

Eight scars would always be seen on her skin now, despite the fact they would fade at least marginally over time. It did not change the fact that this girl had essentially done something even he would never be able to do to himself; she had given herself a permanent semblance of symmetry upon her body, using the most symmetrical number to do such. And despite the fact such dedication to a cause as worthy as symmetry should have moved him to tears, he found that his emotions were mixed between awe at her audacity, and disappointment that he hadn't been able to stop whatever had caused her to resort to such measures before her body became this way.

Having been lost in his musings for a while though, he had failed to recognize the frightened look which entered her eyes as he stared wistfully at her arm- concern emanating from her violet orbs as she worried if he'd changed his opinion of her for what she'd done.

Allowing a rare, soft smile to appear on his face, Kid bowed his head towards her arm he still held before his gaze, and placed six individual kisses on each of the scars she'd added to her repertoire.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Face heating at his sudden actions, she tried to jerk her arm away in shock at her friend's unexpected actions, a small squeak bubbling out of her lips as he refused to loosen his hold on her. Instead however, he grabbed both her hands within his own as she went to put distance between them, having relinquished the hug she'd been giving him after the first kiss he placed upon one of her scars.

Taking advantage of the fact he now had both her hands pinned gently to the sides of their bodies, Kid leaned forward again, planting a kiss on one of the scars which lay just beneath her protruding collar bone, lingering longer on this scar then he had the ones upon her arm, her breath catching in her throat as he did.

Seven.

Pulling away one final time, to look into her animatedly wide eyes, Kid finally did what he'd set out to do in the first place, and bent his head down to collide his lips with her own, Kiboko stiffening at the action.

When at last she realized it was simply a kiss, that there were no ulterior motives from Kid, she closed her eyes to return the gesture, as the reaper released her hands and raised his own to carefully cradle her face within his pale palms- her own arms bending to grasp at the collar of his shirt.

Eight.

Heated blushes grew on both their faces as their lips remained in contact, but neither chose to pull away until air became a necessity, the meister's panting lightly out of breath, before re-opening their eyes and staring into contrasting colored orbs.

And it was then that Kid realized she meant more to him than he had cared to admit before, despite the fact that she called him out on it only minutes ago.

If she would riddle her body with eight scars on either side of her delicate figure, then he would kiss her eight times every day, to remind her that even if no one else noticed, or even if other's refused to care- he would always be worrying for her sake. Her body did not have to suffer because she felt inadequate- her sadness did not have to emerge in the form of red-raised lines decorating their way across her flesh.

He would carry the burdens she could not, and kiss any other worries away.

And having unintentionally spoken such thoughts aloud, which he initially was mortified he'd done, Kid couldn't help grin instead at the shocked, but undeniably happy expression which made her face glow despite the fading light of daytime ebbing its way into the classroom via the large windows along the walls. He had managed to make her happy, and he intended to keep doing such. He may have loved symmetry to the point of obsession, but it wasn't a look he wanted her to force upon her body ever again.

x.x.x.x.x

After leaving the classroom and going their own separate ways with one last brief kiss shared between them, Lord Death's son jumped in shock when he turned around from watching Kiboko walk down the steps to head home, only to be met with the Cheshire smiling countenances of his weapons Liz and Patty.

"Before either of you even think of saying anyth-," he began to say but was interrupted by the loud squealing the two girl's burst out into before he could finish.

"Kid's got a girlfriend! Kid's got a girlfriend! Yay~!" the sisters yelled excitedly, unable to contain their enthusiasm at seeing their meister making such progress with a girl from their class.

"Aw Kid~! We're so happy for you! Maybe now you'll finally stop complaining about symmetry and we can actually get some missions done without you going berserk on us halfway through!" Patty exclaimed happily, as Liz jumped up and down behind her, still screaming about him having a girlfriend joyously.

Sighing in defeat, the young reaper chose instead to turn around and begin making his way home, both girls grinning at each other as they gave one another a thumb's up before chasing after their partner.

"Kid wait up! We wanna hear about the kiss too!" they shouted in unison, as Kid embarrassedly bellowed at them to 'shut up' before walking faster to escape the teasing of his weapons.

He knew they would tease the hell out of him for it, but at that moment, the simple thought that he would see her again the next day allowed their playful banter to fade into the background as he walked home with a smile on his face, eager to get back to school the next day. He still had another eight kisses to give her on the right side of her body- after all- Death the Kid was symmetrical with everything he did in life, and kisses were no exception to the rule.

**So, there you have it~! Could have tweaked the story a bit to have had a darker theme, but I decided to stick with this for now- darker bloody themes are more along the lines of a Stein fic, ya know? Hope you enjoyed reading, and if not then…well…I don't know haha ^-^ **


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